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If you’ve been looking to lose weight and eat healthier without drastic changes, new research from our friends across the pond may bring you a bit of good news.

According to British scientists, women who gave up carbohydrates for just two days, and ate normally the rest of the week, lost more weight than women who cut their caloric intake to 1,500 each day.

The study, which aimed to measure how diet affects cancer risk, found that cutting carbs just twice a week was not only easy for the study’s participants to follow, but also helped to lower cancer risk by lowering their risk of obesity.

The researchers followed 88 women for four months. All the women were at high risk for breast cancer based on their family histories.

One third of the women were put on a Mediterranean-type diet that restricted calories to about 1,500 per day. A second group was told to eat normally most of the time, but two days a week to cut carbs and also calories to about 650 on those two days. The third group was also to cut carbs two days a week, but there was no calorie restriction on those days.

At the end of four weeks women in both of the intermittent dieting groups had lost more weight — about 9 pounds — than the women who ate low calorie meals every day of the week — about 5 pounds.

Women in the intermittent dieting groups also had better improvement than daily dieters in the levels of hormones — insulin and leptin — that have been linked with breast cancer risk, Harvie said.

Interested in trying it at home? Researchers recommend eating sensibly every day and on the no carb days consuming lean proteins (chicken, turkey, fish, ham, etc.) and healthy fats (nuts, avocados, olive oil, etc.), while avoiding bread, pasta, and root vegetables like potatoes, carrots and parsnips.

With the coming New Year, many are looking to get healthier. Would you switch to a no-carb diet two days a week?